IFW summer Resort 2011

The five day gala fashion event Lakmé Fashion Week (LFW) summer/resort 2011 ended in Mumbai recently. Jointly organized by Lakme, the leading Indian cosmetics and beauty brand and IMG Fashion, global leader in the management and production of fashion weeks and designer fashion events, LFW has been conceived and created with a vision to “Redefine the future of fashion and Integrate India into the global fashion world.” This year’s edition brought together on one platform prominent buyers, fashion editors, models, actors as well as established designers along with a new concept of emerging, Gennext and accessory designers who together rocked the show.

Day one started off with Anamika Khanna’s show. She wooed the audience with her simple yet stunning style. The other highlight of the day was the Tokyoeye show from Japan where the fashion fraternity got to sample the genius of three young and successful Japanese designers.

Bollywood’s favorite designer Manish Malhotra ended the second day of the fashion week with a men’s and women’s collection comprising of beautiful chikankari work and Kashmiri embroidery in delicate summer shades. While Bollywood celebrities such as Kareena Kapoor, Amrita Rao, Sophie Choudhry, Sameera and Sushma Reddy came to watch his show, others such as Sonam Kapoor, Simi Garewal and Rahul Bose graced Anamika’s show.

This year’s edition saw a plethora of Bollywood divas sashaying down the ramp for their favorite designer. While Riya Sen wore a little white dress for Arpan Vohra on day one, Tushar Kapoor wore a creation by Sabbah Sharma on day two; Zayed Khan and Diya Mirza walked the ramp as showstoppers for designer Rocky S on the fourth day. Viv Richards and Neena Gupta also turned up together to watch their daughter Masaba Gupta present her Masai tribe collection – contemporary and yet earthy and rustic – in her characteristic color blocking for her lean maxis and innovatively stitched lungi saris in stripes or dots and other garments.

Kicking off an exciting day three was the much heralded accessory show with Eina Ahluwalia, Malini Agarwalla and Suhani Pittie. With accessories being the new heroes of fashion, each designer brought to the ramp a unique and personal collection appealing to a wide variety of women. Baul singers of West Bengal were on the ramp for Babit Malkani’s show. Other well-renowned accessories designers who exhibited at the LFW this year included Prabhat Kumar, Rachana Reddy, Rina Shah and Rohan Arora among others.

The curtains came down on day five with models walking the ramp for designers such as Abhishek Dutta , Lina Tipnis, Satya Paul, Abdul Haldar, Prabhat Kumar, Rachna Reddy, V’J Balhara and Pallavi Mohan. The fantasy collection by Delhi designer sister duo Gauri and Nainika ramp show brought the house down at the grand finale. With a focus on new emerging talent as well as the Gennext designers who style for the young and trendy India, the LFW summer/resort 2011 was a grand success, paving the way for the next one to follow later this year.